'Porta Potty party' rich teen at centre of model's horrific Dubai experience
A Ukrainian model who was brutally beaten and found on the roadside in Dubai with severe injuries claims that she was attacked after meeting a rich teen "who offered to let her stay in his room".
Wheelchair-bound Maria Kovalchuk was discovered in March after going missing for more than a week with fears that she had been kidnapped into sexual slavery. Her injuries included a broken spine and she was in a coma after having "fallen from a height." Based on the testimony of some reported friends, there were fears that Maria had been a victim of a notorious Porta Potty party in Dubai - where rich men are reported to pay large sums to abuse and degrade attractive young women, including those with social media profiles.
The 20-year-old, who nearly lost her life, has spoken for the first time since the incident from Norway where her mother lives and she is now based to continue her recover. Speaking out, she denied that citizens of the United Arab Emirates were behind her torture.
The model, who has a prominent scar on her forehead after undergoing multiple surgeries, instead, pointed the finger at "rich Russian kids" who she alleges abused her after a party in a hotel. Russian news outlet Ostorozhno, Novosti, which spoke to Maria, claimed she met a young man - whom she had previously seen at a karaoke bar - in the lobby of the Five Jumeirah Village hotel.
She had been in Dubai to get content for her job as a model when she overslept and missed her onward flight to Thailand. The 19-year-old man she met lived with his father in Dubai. The report said: "She told him her air ticket had gone to waste and she had to check out of her hotel.
"[He] offered for her to stay in his room and claimed that his father could fly her to Thailand on a private jet." Maria then claimed that there was a party with the children of wealthy Russian and Ukrainian businessmen.
She admitted she agreed to go with the man and his friends - hoping it would lead to a free flight to Thailand, but the atmosphere turned sour. "They started teasing me, why I wasn't drinking," she told prominent Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak at Ostorozhno.Media.
"Then some aggressive pushes like pushing in the shoulders began. After that, they started making fun of me like 'you belong to us, we will do whatever we want.'
"I tried to take it as a joke, because it was really weird. They started behaving inappropriately, smashing bottles on the floor. That is, the entire floor was strewn with broken glass, that is, it was impossible to walk there.
"Then they started intimidating me, smashing glass. After that, they took my personal belongings, which included my passport. And one of the girls….put on my things and just left in them, although before that I asked her not to do this, [and] to leave my things. That is, no one heard me, and she just left the hotel in my dress."
This woman is now out of contact. The men "hinted" they wanted sex, she said, adding: "I did not reciprocate, and this aggression was also heating them up."
The report claimed that "amid the violence", Maria tried to flee "but the young men "dragged her back into the room." It added: "When they stepped out onto the balcony, she escaped and hid at a nearby construction site." Then the men, who were "out of their minds" by this point, allegedly found her at the construction site and "beat her".
"They practically tore the skin off her scalp, then threw her off a ledge onto the road," said the account. Maria explained: "I ran away. Then, already on the street, when I was, I didn't see them anymore, but I knew they were coming. I ran to the nearest building, just scared, and ran in, hid there. It was just an unfinished building, open."
Maria doesn't remember the violence itself that led to her injuries, and the CCTV footage has since been erased, she said. "Three months have passed - the police waited until the cameras were automatically wiped [after this period]. So now there's no evidence," said Maria.
"Most likely, there was a blow to the head, I suppose. The next scene [that] I remember is me asking for help from a passing car, which had already stopped and called an ambulance and the police." She had fled wearing only a hotel robe.
She said: "I think that maybe I was thrown. Or it was a beating. One of two options, the injuries looked like either a beating or a fall." The men accused by Maria were both detained by police in Dubai but only for one day, said the report.
It added: "They now claim in their testimonies that they tried to find and help Maria and that she had asked to come to the party herself." There appear to be no charges against them. "The next day the case was closed, they were released. And the case was closed," said Maria's mother.
"The [Dubai] police investigation indicated that Maria said that she was running away from sexual violence and then went to protect her honour, her dignity, decided to commit suicide," she said. The mother claimed the statement was "falsified", adding that Maria wasn't trying to take her own life and saying she was not intoxicated. Medical tests also showed she had no alcohol in her blood, said her mother.
Maria claimed that her expensive medical treatment was paid for by the Dubai authorities which the Russian outlet claimed was in return for not speaking negatively about the country.
On her recovery from injury she added: "I mostly use a wheelchair and crutches. I still have a leg fracture that's healing. I'm learning to walk with crutches again, but for now, the wheelchair is my main means of moving around."
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